Method of drying soap chips and apparatus for carrying out the same



Aug. 10 1926.

c. G. SARGENT ET Al- METHCD OF DRYING SOAP CHIPS AND APPARATUS CARRYINGOUT THE SAME 2 Sheet 7 Filed June l6 Aug. 10 1926. 1,595,878

' c. G. SARGENT ET AL METHOD OF DRYING SOAP CHIPS AND APPARATUS FORCARRYING OUT THE SAME Filed June 16,. 1924 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 OOOooloooolo A ooooooo 000000000 &

ZOEJOOO Patented Aug. 10, 1926.

UNITED STATES 1,595,878 PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES G. SARGENT AND FRANK I. FURBUSH, OF WESTFORIO, MASSACHUSETTS,AS- SIGNORS TO C. G. SARGENTS SONS CORPORATION, A CORPORATION OFMASSACHU- METHOD OF DRYING SOAP CHIPS AND APPARATUS FOR CARRYING OUT THESAME.

Application filed June 16, 1924. Serial No. 720,188.

This invention relates to the drying of chipped soap. Although the soapis delivered in the form of films or ribbons in this machine they soontake the form of chips by breaking up as they dry.

The principal objects of this invention are to avoid the indiscriminatecirculation of the air by disc fans through all parts of the.

drying chamber and blowing it directly against the soap on a pluralityof conveyors, thus treating the soap to the same blast of air whether ithas been previously subjected to any drying operation or not. Byintroducing the hot air in that way without any definite path ofcirculation, the drying is performed in an indiscriminate way withoutany regard for the fact that the soap i likely to be melted by beingsubjected to a temperature too high upon its entering the machine and todry on the surface or case harden and be discolored. We avoid thesedifliculties by subjecting the soap chips to a succession of dryingactions of diflerent degrees.

In the preferred form of the invention the soap passes three timesthrough the drying chamber, being exposed to a moderate temperature whenit enters and then to a higher temperature during'its second entry andfinally a maximum temperature during its final passage through thechamber which is the period at which the soap is being discharged.

For the purpose of accomplishing these results the hot air is driveninto the drying chamber in a series of currents under the lowestconveyor which discharges the chips.

The soap on this one therefore is subjected to the full temperature ofdry heated air. As the air passes through this conveyor it takes upmoisture from the soap and also is reduced in temperature. It thenpasses-immediately to the next conveyor and through the soap thereon,subjecting that soap to air at a lower temperature, but still oneconsiderabl high, and containing some moisture. inally the air afterhaving been cooled and moistened further in this way, encounters thesoap on the first conveyor by which it is introduced into the machineand heats that to a moderate temperature so that it cannot be melted byit or cannot dry rapidly on the surface and discolor. The

air circulation as wellas the cooling of the soap .chips as they aredischarged from the Y of Fig. 1.

We have shown the invention as carried out in a three apron drier. Thisdrier may be of any desired length, having six, eight or ten sections,but it is characterized by the fact that it is provided with an upperendless apron 10 which receives the material at the left'hand end inFig. 1 and drops it over the roll 11 at one end on which the apron iscarried on a second apron 12 at a lower level which travels in theopposite direction as indicated by the arrow thereon. This apron carriesthe material back to the feed end of the drier and drops it over theroll 13 on the lower or discharge apron 14 which travels back in thesame direction as the "apron 10. This apron carries the stock out to thedischarge end of the machine. The aprons so far described are well knownin drying machines and we have not described any particular method ofdriving them as any ordinary method can be used.

. But they are driven so that each succeeding apron is driven at aslightl reduced speed to compensate for full shrin age of the soap as itdries. This allows for practically even layers of chips on all aprons..We have provided a feed apron 15 connected with the apron 10. On thisapron the soap ribbons or films are dumped from the machine in whichthey are produced, or from another conveyor, so as to be fed in thedirection of the arrow on the conveyor 10.

The drying machine in which the conveyors 10, 12 and 14 are located hasa longitudinal heating chamber 16 along one side provided with a seriesof longitudinal steam pipes 17 which are heated'by steam 'in anyordinary way. The heated air from this chamberis drawn out through along opening 18 along the bottom entering the drying accompanythe soapchips on this apron to the maximum. This is the final heating of thesoap.

' Then the somewhat cooled and moistened air is forced through the soapon the apron 12 and finally the first apron 10 and part of it throughside discharge passage 21 into the chamber 23. In this chamber arecirculating fans 24 which draw the air up through the three conveyoraprons ,and then discharge it down through openings 25 back into theheating chamber Several of these fans 24 are located along the top ofthe coil chamber and each of them performs the function above mentioned.6

Some of the air enters into a conduit 28 which extends throughout thelength of the drying chamber at the top and has an inlet slot throughoutits length. The exhaust fan 26 at the feed end receives the moistureladen air from this conduit and discharges it upwardly through anexhaust outlet 27 out of the machine. In this way the air is heated,filled. with moisture by going through the soap, then part of it drawndown back into the heating coils and circulated over again and finallydischarged through the outlet 27 as stated. In this way the airencountering the soap chips when they first enter the machine is moremoderately heated and also more moist than that they encounter as theypass along further in the machine on the first conveyor. Therefore theyare not suddenly heated too hot nor dried too rapidly as they enter thedrier but are both heated and dried gradually, so that they do not meltor case harden.

The chips are subjected to these drafts of heated air until the moistureis all taken out of them, but by that time they are heated up to a hightemperature, of course below the melting point of the material of whichthey are made. The nextstep of the process consists in running the apron14 out materially beyond theapron 12-so that it goes through a coolinchamber 30. Here it encounters drafts 0 air delivered from chambers 31,32 and 33 locatedon both sides and below the cooling chamber 30. Eachchamberis provided withwater pipes 34 through which the water is drivenby a pump. A fan 35 forces air in from the outside through these variouschambers and around the pipes into contact with the heated soap chips onthe conveyor 14 soas to cool down these soap chips. Baffie plates 36 areemployed to force the air from the chamber 31down into close contactwith the chips onthe apron. All the air thus driven in passes outthrough a stack 37 into tne atmosphere. Soap chips thus thoroughly driedand cooled are delivered from the machine over the end of the con- Allof the air 1s F veyor 14 at the right hand end as shown in i 1.

In this way the chips are thoroughly dried by a gradual process. Theheat of the air in the various parts of the drier is conserved as muchas possible and finally the air is discharged in a somewhat coolcondition, thus providing for an efficient use of the heat.

The cooling chamber is made entirely separate and the currents of airtherethrough are separate from the heated air in the other chamber asthere is little space around the apron 14 in which there may be anycommunication. Even at this time the heated air currents in the chamber19 near the end and the cool air currents in the chamber 30 adjacentthereto move in the same direction and are forced by the action of thefans to move in that direction so) that there is very little occasionfor them to mix atthe point where they could pass back and forth asthere is no material difference in pressure at adjacent'points in thetwo chambers.

This afi'ords an economical and eflicient method of drying soap chipsand at the same time delivering them in a cooled condition so that theycan be packed in boxes ready for immediate shipment or storage and therewill be no danger that when packed they will retain any heat sutficientto cause them to adhere to each other or to flatten out and pack down.This also avoids all necessity of delaying the packing process after thedrying process is completed. They can be carried on practicallycontinuously which is an important feature.

Although we have illustrated and described a specific order of steps anda specific form of drying machine, we are aware of the fact that thisprinciple can be carried out by anyone skilled in the art withoutfollowing exactly the procedure or employing the specific form of dryingmachine, shown and described without departing from the scope of theinvention as expressed in. the claims. I

Therefore we do not wish to be limited to all the details ofconstruction but what .we do claim is Q 1. The method of drying soapchips which consists in carrying them through a chamber in a series ofstages, running them at each stage at a speed slightly less than that ofthe one in which they have" previously traveled, subjecting them tocurrents of heated air while traveling in said chamber, directing saidcurrents so as to heat the chips gradually as they travel along, movingthem from the chamber after they are thoroughly; dried, and immediatelysubjecting them to currents of cold air adjacent 'to the heatingchamber.

2! In an apparatus of the characterdescribed, the combination with adrying chamber, a plurality-10f endless aprons therein for receiving thesoap chips and discharging themalternate'ly at opposite ends of thechamber from one apron to another, the -bottom apron extendingmaterially beyond the other aprons at the discharge end for carryingthesoap chips-out of the drying chamber, and means in the drying chamberfor forcing currents of heated air up through the several aprons to drythe chips thereon of a coolin chamber adjacent to the drying chamber trough which the lower apron extends, and means in the cooling chamberfor forcing cooled air up through the lower apron and down upon theupper surface thereof where it passes through the cooling chamber tocool the heated chips before they are discharged from the lowerconveyor.

In testimony whereof we have hereunto afiixed our signatures.

CHARLES 'G. SARGENT.

FRANK L. FURBUSH.

